HISD outlines $1.9 billion bond issue

By Ericka Mellon |
June 21, 2012
| Updated: June 22, 2012 6:28am

Most of Houston's aging high schools would be rebuilt or renovated under HISD Superintendent Terry Grier's plan to seek voter approval for a $1.9 billion bond issue, the largest for a Texas district in recent history.

Grier's proposal, unveiled Thursday, would phase in a tax rate increase of 7 cents, costing the owner of an average-priced home an extra $99 a year in 2017.

The school board must approve the plan before it would appear on the November ballot. In their first comments, trustees generally agreed the Houston Independent School District has serious building needs, but some weren't ready to commit support, questioning whether the plan was based on a thorough analysis.

Early polling says more voters would support than resist an HISD bond, though organized opposition and other referendums on the ballot could be threats to passage. The first tax increase would take effect in 2014, raising the average bill for a $200,000 home by $29.

"I say this and I mean this with my soul: This bond could transform Houston as a city," Grier said. "I'm a former high school principal. I know the difference a high school makes in a community. Putting a brand-new high school in the middle of a community is absolutely a strategy to jump start the economy there."

Based on a study

Grier said he based his recommendations on a board-approved study. Consultants with Parsons and MGT of America sent surveys to schools about their building needs, analyzed data and followed up with visits to about 35 campuses (or 12 percent of those in the district.)

"We don't need room for errors that were made in the last bond," HISD trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones said, referring to the $805 million referendum that narrowly passed in 2007 after leaders of the black community protested the lack of public input and the closing of some schools. "We cannot be too careful in the needs assessment."

Grier's proposal includes replacing eight high schools: Booker T. Washington, Furr, Lee, Madison, Sharpstown, Sterling, Yates and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. HSPVA would be built on a new site in downtown's theater district.

Bellaire, Lamar, Sam Houston and Westbury high schools would be mostly torn down and rebuilt. Bellaire, which houses the most students, is the largest single project, at $117 million.

Some of the schools such as Yates that have seen their student enrollments decline would get new, smaller campuses.

Bellaire and Lamar, which are overcrowded, would be built for 3,000 students - a few hundred fewer than they have now. Grier said the new buildings would have more space than the current ones.

Significant rebuilding and renovations would take place at Austin, Eastwood Academy, Milby, Waltrip and Worthing high schools. Another 10 high schools would undergo less costly renovations.

Trustee Juliet Stipeche criticized the plan for not including a new High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, her alma mater. Grier acknowledged the facility is lacking but said he wants to sell the valuable property on Dickson and find a new site.

Stipeche said she opposed changing the location, which is convenient to internships at downtown law firms and to students who transfer in from across the city.

State Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, made a special appearance at the board meeting Thursday night to tell trustees he did not support the bond proposal as is, particularly the slight to Law Enforcement.

'Could pass now'

"Our consensus is, this is a bond that could probably pass, and pass now, as opposed to a year or two or three from now when maybe the economy is different," said Bob Stein, a Rice University professor who helped conduct a phone survey of registered voters in late May and early June on behalf of HISD.

In the last two decades, the largest bond issue by a Texas district was Dallas ISD's $1.4 billion in 2002, according to research by The Bond Buyer newspaper. HISD's $1.9 billion proposal would be the eighth-largest nationally, behind the Los Angeles and San Diego school districts.